April 12, ISjS. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
297 
SOME USEFUL ORCHIDS AND THEIR 
TREATMENT. 
Tiik following Orclikls can be grown and flowered continually 
in one house where miscellaneous Ferns and flowering plants are 
always grown under the ordinary stove treatment. 
C.VLANTIIES. —These are foremost among Orchids in producing 
the largest amount of flowers during months of greatest scarcity. 
C. Veitchi and C. vestita are best grown in baskets suspended from 
the roof over the paths. The growths become more stui’dy and 
matured in this way than in pots, and consequently the flower 
spikes much stronger. I have had flower spikes of C. Veitchi 
G feet long and with upwards of forty blooms, and when arranged 
white and red alternately they have a very pleasing effect. The 
best compost to grow them in consists of three parts fibry loam 
and one each of Orchid peat, sphagnum moss, dry cow manure and 
silver sand, with two of charcoal. The best kind of loam is from 
poor commons or hill sides, as the fibre, which is the only part 
needed, is more durable, and contains less soil than turf from 
cultivated pastures. The best cow manure is what has been used 
for mulching Vine borders in summer, which becomes thoroughly 
sweetened and friable. It should be removed in the autumn in a 
perfectly dry state, and kept so until required for use. Calanthes 
are benefited by liquid manure made from deer or sheep droppings, 
and it should be frequently given them wlien the roots are fuUy in 
action, and continued as long as the foliage remains green and 
healthy. As soon as the flower spikes are visible water must be 
gradually withheld, and this is of great importance, as the flower 
spikes will be weakened no matter how strong the pseudo-bulbs 
may be, if water is too suddenly withheld. 
The evergreen species, C. Masuca and C. veratrifolia, require 
different treatment from those already named, which should be 
grown exclusively in loam, the same as that recommended for the 
deciduous Calanthes, only with this difference, the only part of it 
to be rejected is that which separates from the fibre when the turves 
are broken up. It should be in large pieces, mixed with lumps of 
charcoal, the pots being half filled with large hollow crocks, and 
the plants kept W’ell above the pot and firmly packed with the well 
mi.xed turf and charcoal, but not rammed. The turf should be 
procured in sufficient time to have it mellow'ed before it is used, 
and the thickness of turf must be regulated by the depth of fibre. 
The plants, after potting, should have a good supply of water, which 
will be all they will require until the roots become active, when 
constant waterings are necessary, as they grow and flower all the 
year through, and if liquid manure be given them at the same time 
as recommended for the deciduous varieties, the substance and 
colour of leaf will be greatly improved, and a good winter supply 
of flowers insured. C. Masuca is rarely out of flower with me, but 
I have not had the same experience with C. veratrifolia, as the 
plant I have of the litter is from a small imported piece I have 
had a few years, and though it only occupies an 8-inch pot, it has 
just thi'own Up six strong flower spikes. 
Cypripeiiiuois.—C. Dominianum is a great acquisition, and one 
of the most truly perpetual flowering plants I know. I have some¬ 
times had six blooms on one stem. C. caudatum, which is one of 
the parents of C. Dominianum, resembles its progeny very closely 
in flower, but not in freedom of growth. C. barbatum grows freely 
and flowers profusely every spring, and solitary blooms in autumn, 
often two blooms, on a stem. I grow them exclusively in 
sphagnum moss and sand in pots filled within an inch or so of the 
top, crocks and charcoal, on which the plants should be raised above 
the rim of the pots with moss, and each growth packed around 
firmly with the same material, renewing it when needed, as they do 
not reejuire periodical shiftings. The roots are fond of fastening 
on the rim of the pot, from which they do not like bsing removed. 
C<Ei>Of;YNE CRISTATA. —This both grows and flowers freely if 
kept near the glass. Peat in well drained pots suits it best. 
Dendrobium. —D. chrysanthum and D. fimbriatum if kept qui+e 
near the glass flower splendidly, producing blooms several years in 
succession from the same pseudo-bulbs grown in peat cither in 
baskets or well-drained pots. Spring is the flowering period of 
both, though the former sometimes flower more than once a year. 
Peristeria elata. —This is thought by some gardeners to be a 
shy plant, but it flowers with me every year. The large pseudo¬ 
bulbs, which are the size of small cocoanuts, produce flower spikes 
6 feet long, and after the flowers commence to open they continue 
flowering up the spike for six weeks. Its peculiar spicy odour is 
more pleasing at a distance from the flowers than near to them. 
The best compost to grow them in is tough fibry peat and charcoal, 
the pots being three parts filled with large hollow crocks and filled 
nearly to the top with large lump of peat and charcoal, giving the 
plant as much elevation as possible, packing more large lumps of 
peat and charcoal around them, leaving the surface <as open and 
porous as possible. After the potting is finished the whole surface 
should have a thick layer of sharp sand spread over it and well 
watered with a fine-rose pot, and no more water will be required for 
some time. The proper time for repotting, which should be done 
every year, is when the young pseudo-bulbs begin to emit roots, 
the plants being pulled out of the pots and the old soil shaken 
from them, the dead roots being cut off. Sponge the foliage and 
allow it to remain on the old pseudo-bulbs until they turn yellow, 
as all the time they remain green they are assisting the old pseudo- 
bulbs in the production of those which are to follow them. If too 
many old pseudo-bulbs should have accumulated for the size of the 
plant, only such as are shrivelled should be pulled off. 
PiiAL,ENOPSiS.—P. amabilis and P. grandiflora grow and flower 
well, but the flowers of both are readily damaged in a humid atmo¬ 
sphere. P. Schilleriana is a great acquisition ; it is superior in con¬ 
stitution to the former, the flowers are not so sensitive to damp, 
and are unrivalled in elegance both in form and colour. Wooden 
blocks or baskets seem the best to grow them. 
Saccolabium.—S. guttatum and its varieties grow and flower 
splendidly. I have pots made purposely for them, having as many 
apertures for ventilation cut in them as the pots will bear. When 
the plant roots are aranged around the pots it should be carefully 
filled to the top with clean hollow crocks, which may be covered 
with a thin layer of sphagnum moss, more for the sake of appear¬ 
ance than utility. 
Van BA TRICOLOR, if grown in the same way recommended for 
Saccolabium, will have that desirable fine dark thick glossy growth 
which is too often painfully absent with Vandas, though most 
necessary in order to have them bloom twice a year as mine do. 
Zygopetalum M.vckayi is a useful and constant flowering 
Orchid, and at a season when much desired, best grown in pots well 
drained, using heavy plant peat and sharp sand and charcoal. 
Doubtless there are other species that may be named, but none 
that I have tried can be so successfully grown in one house as those 
enumerated.— Rd. Westcott, Baby Garden^. 
FREKSIAS. 
The other day I saw some capital Freesias in the garden of the 
Misses Goodlad, Hill Place, Bishop’s Waltham. There were nearly 
fifty pots of plants in different stages of growth, some coming into 
bloom, some in full flower, while others were past. The results 
clearly proved that for either conservatory or house decoration, 
where delicacy of colour and sweet perfume are valued, Freesias 
are most useful. Mr. Blake informs me that he prefers Freesia 
Leichtlini, in some respects, to F. refracta alba. The latter variety 
does not develope its flowers nearly so well, remaining more cup¬ 
shaped than F. Leitchtlini, consequently the beauty of the flowers 
is not so easily seen. The latter also produces stronger spikes and 
individual flowers. Some of the bulbs he has had five years, and 
they are finer now than ever. They flower much better the 
second year after purchasing them. He grows about eight bulbs in 
a 5-inch pot. The flower spikes grow from 10 to 15 inches high, 
and produce twelve blooms on the strongest spikes. When flower¬ 
ing is past, which takes place in the conservatory, the plants are 
removed to a cooler house, gradually withholding water until the 
bulbs are ripened, when they are stood outside close together on a 
bed of ashes until the bulbs are repotted in the early part of 
September. The soil used is good loam and sand. They are then 
place! in a frame, where water will not be required if the soil was 
moist. When growth has fairly started they are removed to a cool 
vinery, securing a light airy position near to the glass. Water is 
most carefully supplied to the loots. In February they are placed 
in a vinery where the night temperature is kept at about 55°, and as 
the flower spikes develope the plants are removed to drier quarters, 
where the flowers last much longer. —E. Molyneux. 
CONSERVING HEAT. 
This winter has been a very trying one, and to keep up the rc- 
(juisite temperature in a Cucumber house has been quite enough to 
worry the most equable. Last summer 1 purchased a slow combustion 
boiler, and I have found it answer admirably, for the heat has been on 
the average from fi2° to 72° at six o’clock next morning after stoking at 
nine o’clock at night, and frequently the fire has not been out. 1 do 
not think in any case the heat has been lower than 02°, and in only two 
